1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to means for mounting rotatble shafts in thin walls, and in particular to means for mounting a damper door operating lever in a wall of an air conditioning unit.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Air conditioning units such as room air conditioners generally include refrigeration circuits having an evaporator and a condenser. The unit is generally divided by a partition into an evaporator section and a condenser section. The unit is normally mounted with the evaporator section being adjacent the space being cooled by the unit and in communication with the air in that space, and the condenser section is in communication with outdoor air. Refrigerant flows through the refrigeration circuit and absorbs heat from the room air flowing through the evaporator section causing the refrigerant therein to evaporate and flow towards the condenser section. Refrigerant in the condenser section gives up absorbed heat to the outdoor air flowing over the condenser causing the refrigerant to condense. In addition to the capability of controlling the temperature of the air in the space being conditioned, it is often desirable to remove stale air from the space or to admit fresh, outdoor air to the space. This is accomplished in various air conditioning units by the provision of appropriately positioned ports in the foregoing partition which can be selectively opened and closed to control the flow of air between the evaporator and condenser sections. Although it is common to provide a port for exhaust air and a second port for ventilation air, it is entirely possible to provide but one of the foregoing ports.
Ports of the aforementioned type are usually located to make use of pressure differentials for forcing the air in the desired direction through the partition. Such pressure differentials are normally created by means of appropriate fans and blower wheels disposed in the respective sections. The use of such ports is known in the art, as evidenced by U.S. Pat. No. 2,986,016 which issued on May 30, 1961, to Gillham et al.
Damper doors are conventionally provided for selectively opening and closing exhaust and vent port doors in room air conditioners. An effective construction of damper doors of the foregoing type and the associated apparatus for selectively opening and closing the doors is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,823,574 which issued on July 6, 1974 to Theodore S. Bolton. The latter patent discloses a pair of pivotally mounted damper doors which are biased towards the closed positions by compression springs connected at one end to the partition and at the other end to one of the doors. The doors are opened by means of a lever which selectively engages the doors and overcomes the bias of the respective springs.
The lever provided by the foregoing patent comprises a rotatable shaft, an actuating arm extending from the shaft adapted to be positioned between tabs on the exhaust and vent doors of the air conditioning unit, and a control arm extending from the shaft and including a manually accessible portion. The shaft is selectively rotated by the control arm to cause the actuating arm to rotate the tab of either of the foregoing doors to open that door. Once the tab is disengaged from the door, springs bias the door to its closed position.